19th Century Epic Romances discussion

Use this thread to nominate books for the group discussion in October:
You may nominate a book on this thread from now until 9/20/14.

A poll will be created on 9/20/14 for group members to vote until 9/30/14, when the winner of the poll will be announced.

Please nominate a romance novel written in the 19th Century.

I would like to nominate
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Perfect choice for October, as it has some ghostly elements!
It's been unread on my shelf for a year now...

I know! I wanted to read it this time last year. It has also been about a year since we read "North and South" by Gaskell, so I was thinking about nominating "Mothers and Daughters".

Wives and Daughters is pure reading enjoyment. I haven't found any authors to beat Gaskell and Hardy as my favorites. I'm looking forward to seeing how Wilkie Collins compares!

The Woman in White is a nice choice. Haven't read that in many years!

Gaskell and Hardy are my favorites too, after Austin.

I nominate Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray.

I've been following this group as a lurker, but I would read the Woman in White. I've had that one for years now and would enjoy reading it.

Can I second Vanity Fair? :)

I´d like to second Wives and Daughters.

I've been hoping we would get to The Woman in White. So that's my vote.

I recently read and really loved Wives and Daughters. The Woman in White is still on my TBR. I did recently read some others by Wilkie Collins (The Moonstone and No Name), which I really loved, so one more by him, I wouldn't mind.
But I'd like to nominate another book by Elizabeth Gaskell: Ruth.

I like both of these to read

I would like to read The Woman in White next month.

I second Ruth by Eliabeth Gaskell

I would love to discuss Wives & Daughters (saw the movie on youtube & loved it!), have never read
Vanity Fair although saw a little bit of movie with Reese Witherspoon and have meant to see all of it and read the book too, but never got around to it. Finally I read the Woman in White about a year or so ago, & thought it was so gothic and intense, really enjoyed it, so to be honest would love to read all three of these books. Hopefully in next few months we can do that. Jaye

I agree with Jaye, maybe we can read all nominated books in the coming months? That would be:
Wives and Daughters,
Vanity Fair,
The Woman in White,
Ruth.
They all sound wonderful to me (I know Wives and Daughters is, because I recently read it - the others are new to me)!

Elsbeth wrote: "I agree with Jaye, maybe we can read all nominated books in the coming months? That would be: Wives and Daughters, Vanity Fair, ..."

Are you suggesting that the four books listed will be read & discussed by the end of December?

Vanity Fair -- 867 pages
Wives and Daughters -- 720 pp.
The Woman in White -- 672 pp.
Ruth -- 432 pp.

That would mean that the group would be reading 2,691 pages. That is a lot of pages!
And the holidays also keep everyone busy . . .

Carol wrote: "Elsbeth wrote: "I agree with Jaye, maybe we can read all nominated books in the coming months? That would be: Wives and Daughters, Vanity Fair, ..."

Are you suggesting th..."
Oh yes, I see it is! Well, I'm not saying we should only use one month for every book - we could do each one in 2 months or something like that?

Woman in White please!

I personally like getting back to nominating books and voting on a poll. If your nomination doesn't win for the month you can always renominate it the next. Maybe just for November/December we can do a two month read depending if a bigger book gets chosen.

I would love to read any of the books nominated, but I think the most fair way of deciding what to read is by a poll. I will create a poll on 9/20/14, including all the books nominated at that time and post the winner on 9/30/14. We can discuss the length of the book as we read it and if it seems better to extend the discussion to two months, we can do that. However, I have found that the discussion starts to lag and fizzle out by the second month when I have participated in discussions in other groups that last longer than a month.

Fine by me!

I have a soft spot for Trollope. Can You Forgive Her? introduces Lady Glencora Palliser and one of the most interesting marriages in English literature. The character of Alice is a little hard to take, but Lady Glencora enters and owns the stage.

Shelley
http://dustbowlstory.wordpress.com

Oh my goodness! Trollope! I have ALL of his books! Haven't revisited them in a long time though :>

It helps but I don't think it is neccessary.

I never read anything by Trollope Anthony, so maybe we can include one of his books in this poll? What about: Can You Forgive Her?, since it is already mentioned by Shelley?

The poll is set up now - go to our group home page on 9/20/14 and you can either click on "Polls" at the top right corner, or scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and you will see the poll.

Sometimes one likes foolish people for their folly, better than wise people for their wisdom.

Elizabeth Gaskell

Victorian writer Elizabeth Gaskell (born September 29, 1810) was championed by Charles Dickens, who published her ghost stories in his magazine, Household Words, and wrote a biography of Charlotte Brontë at the request of Brontë's father.